Blog: Words and images

The monarch butterfly, seen on flowers and in the fields of Central Ohio during the summer months and the subject of my featured gallery for October, is unique among butterflies. It’s the only butterfly that migrates north and south, coming as far north as Canada each summer before returning to Mexico for the winter.

But the monarch’s life span is so short — usually no more than two months for butterflies born in early summer — that no one monarch makes the round-trip migration. Female monarchs deposit eggs during the migration, with the offspring completing the journey.